Welcome to Oak Spring

The Oak Spring Garden Library comprises Rachel Lambert Mellon's (1910-2014) celebrated collection of rare books, manuscripts, works of art and artifacts relating to gardening, landscape design, horticulture, botany, natural history and travels. The Library is nestled in the foothills between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Bull Run Mountains near Upperville, Virginia. It was designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in 1980 with a new wing designed by Thomas M. Beach in 1993, both in consultation with Rachel Mellon. The collection is a unique historical archive as well as a day-to-day working resource.

"These reflections of a lifetime interest are kept in a whitewashed
building made of local stone, a gift from my husband Paul. It stands in an open field, wild flowers grow where they will, apple trees are
espaliered to the east and west. Inside, the sun casts long, bright
shadows across the room on to the white stone walls. These books
about the outdoors live not in dusty darkness but behind simple, pale
oak doors, easily opened to the world they tell about. Two large
glass doors create an opening twelve feet square in the long wall,
framing an ancient hackberry whose lacy branches are caught up in
witches' brooms. Beyond this is a rolling landscape of grass and
cornfields, outlined in native trees: dogwoods, willows, maples, and
ashes."
Rachel Lambert Mellon (1910-2014),
January 1989,
(Preface, An Oak Spring Sylva)

Among Rachel Mellon's own contributions to the art of gardening are the Rose Garden and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at The White House in Washington, D.C. Her honors include the Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Royal Horticultural Society's Veitch Gold Medal, the Henry Shaw Award, and the American Horticultural Society Landscape Design Award, and she has been recognized for her assistance during the restoration of the Potager du Roi at Versailles.

See our Publications page where you can purchase all four of the Oak Spring Volumes.
Visit our Digitizing Project page to experience a special selection of our rare books and manuscripts.